Friday, September 11, 2015

What you need to know about the extended SR 104 Hood Canal bridge closures

UPDATE 3:17 p.m. Sept. 11: Today's afternoon bridge opening ended much earlier than anticipated and the bridge is open to vehicle traffic at this time. Be prepared for additional extended closures this weekend by checking the status of the bridge before you go.

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If you use the SR 104 Hood Canal bridge, you've likely heard about us asking drivers to be prepared for extended vehicle traffic closures.

The extended vehicular closures are the result of three converging circumstances that risk putting the bridge’s drawspan out of alignment: high tides, a disengaged anchor cable being replaced as part of a planned construction project and requests by mariners for drawspan openings.

By law, we must accommodate marine traffic requests within one hour’s notice. We've asks mariners to request drawspan openings only at slack tide throughout the weekend while the anchor cable is being installed and tensioned.

Mariners have been flexible to changing the time of bridge opening requests for boat passage. However, there's still a risk of extended vehicle closures similar to the 6-hour unplanned closure on Thursday.

Bridge closure for Friday, Sept. 11
The Hood Canal bridge will close to traffic at 2:45 p.m. today. This is an hour delay from the originally planned closure time, resulting from a change in the request from a mariner.

Postponing the beginning of the closure does not change the scenario of a potentially extended vehicular closure through slack tide at 5:30 p.m. We'll attempt to reopen the bridge to traffic as soon as possible.

Where to check for vehicle traffic closures
We'll be updating the Hood Canal Bridge website throughout the weekend. Please check that page before you go or sign up for text alerts by testing "wsdot hood" to 468311. You can unsubscribe from receiving alerts by texting "wsdot stop" to the same number.

1 comment:

Our elected and non elected officials have once again ruined our roads! Misuse of tax $$$$ we already paid and this is a jam on 405. I shouldn't type anymore because I'm becoming like our roads ...bad and not getting anywhere!